Winter Landscape – Denys Van Alsloot (c. 1568 – C. 1626)

Oil on oak panel. Flemish school of the 17th century attributed to Denys van Alsloot.
In an atmosphere of great coldness, the composition that opens before our eyes mixes both humor and magic. In a monochrome of blues and greens on bistre or pinkish grounds, characters with theatrical attitudes punctuate the decor and animate the scene. On a frozen expanse, a man falls and spills his eggs under the eyes of a desolate old merchant, a wobbly skater tries to keep his balance, a knife grinder takes a break at the edge of the lake, a hunter accompanied by his dog returns to the village, and a gentleman wearing a ruff and a top hat walks… The particular gradation of colors is an integral part of van Alsloot's universe: browns then flat greens in the foreground, and blues in the background. Also, the composition, initially closed to focus the gaze on the drama that is playing out, opens in the background onto a panoramic view of a village on the edge of a forest. This is a pattern often used by the Flemish master. The diaphanous light that floods the distance adds to the dreamlike atmosphere of our painting. In Flanders or in the Netherlands, at the end of this little ice age, life seems hardly affected by negative temperatures or bad weather, economic activity continues and the joys of skating occupy free time.

Provenance: collection of Count Rémy de Polignac.
Our composition is presented in a stylish frame in tortoiseshell veneer and blackened wood.
Dimensions: 53 x 75 cm – 70 x 92.5 cm with frame
Sold with invoice and certificate of expertise

Denys van Alsloot (Mechelen c. 1568 – Brussels c. 1626) is a Flemish painter cited from 1593 (date on which he participated in the decoration of a monument in the church of Notre-Dame du Sablon in Brussels). Received master at the court of the Archduke of Austria Albert in 1599, he became famous and frequently collaborated with Hendrick de Clerck (the latter would sometimes paint the characters in van Alsloot's compositions). A meticulous landscape painter in the wake of Gillis van Coninxloo, his broad views announce the landscape of the Brussels school (Jacques d'Arthois, Lucas Achtschellinck or Lodewijk de Vadder). Van Alsloot's works can be admired in the greatest museums: three large compositions at the Prado Museum in Madrid, three others at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, a winter landscape at the Louvre Museum in Paris, two works in the collections of the Royal Museums of Brussels in Belgium...

Bibliography:
- VAN SPRANG, Sabine, Denijs van Alsloot (circa 1568 - 1625/26), Landscape painter in the service of the court of the archdukes Albert and Isabella, Pictora Nova Brepols, 2015.
- GIBSON, Walter S., Mirror of the Earth: the World Landscape in Sixteenth-Century Flemish Painting, Princeton, Princeton University press, 1989.
- SUTTON, PC, Masters of 17th-century Dutch landscape painting, (exhibit cat. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam Oct 1987 – Jan 1988, Museum of Fine Arts of Boston Feb – May 1988, Philadelphia Museum of Art June – July 1988), Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1988.
- THIERY, Yvonne, Flemish Landscape Painters in the 17th Century: From the Precursors to Rubens, Brussels, Lefèbvre and Gillet, 1988.
- VLIEGHE, Hans, Flemish Art and Architecture: 1585 – 1700, Yale University Press, 1998.
- TAPIE, Alain, WEEMANS, Michel, Fables of the Flemish Landscape, (exhibit cat. Lille, Palais des beaux-arts, October 6, 2012-January 14, 2013), Paris, Somogy, 2012.